Woakes to miss start of season with ankle injury

Warwickshire look like having to start the County Championship season without key fast bowling all-rounder Chris Woakes.

The England one-day international was taken to hospital after sustaining an ankle injury while fielding in the final of The Banks Barbados T20 Cup, and could be out of action for up to six weeks.

In just the fourth over of the game against Yorkshire at the Kensington Oval, on the evening of March 22 local time, Woakes slid across the outfield to gather the ball and collapsed in obvious pain as his foot gave way beneath him.

After a short stoppage he was helped from the field and taken straight to a hospital in Bridgetown. There was a fear among the Warwickshire backroom staff that the ankle may have been broken, potentially ruling the 23-year-old out for most of the domestic season.

However, at around 11pm local time Gerhard Mostert, the team physiotherapist, reported that X-rays at the hospital revealed that there wasn’t a fracture but there was considerable ligament damage to Woakes’s ankle.

Although too early to give an exact timing on how long the all-rounder would be sidelined, Mostert estimated that the injury would take at least four to six weeks to heal.